Postage Time to the USA

[flwilliams2010]

I send 20 or so items to the USA per month in a cardboard envelope mailer as a large letter. Lately items have been taking up to 6 weeks to arrive, and none have arrived in under 4 weeks. Australia Post website states it should take up to 10 business days to arrive, but they are taking 20-30 business days. I have some very unhappy customers. When I spoke to Australia Post they said it was the fault of customs in the USA and out of their hands.  Is anyone else experiencing these severe delays?

[lyndal1838]

I am not a seller but we have relatives in the USA and Canada so have had many years experience of both postal systems.

Even 25 years ago we found letters were taking about a week to arrive in the country and a further 4-5 weeks for delivery in major cities. Deliveries to regional Canada were even slower.

It seems not much has changed in all this time.

[transport-posters]

Yes, I've been experiencing extended delivery delays to the US and Canada in the past six months or so.  It used to take a week to 10 days, now it can take two weeks or a bit longer in some cases.  I noticed about three which happened around the same time.

It's a real problem with eBay telling buyers one thing and the postage service doing another thing.  I sent a print to France in early Sep and the buyer opened an item not received  dispute on PayPal 10 days later.  PayPal gave them back their money and I lost $40.

[mbselections00]

I don't post so frequently to US, but did post a Registered Large letter (padded envelope, but same category of mailing) on Monday 12th October & received lovely F/Back saying it arrived on Saturday - 24th, which I generally find is about normal for US, maybe sometimes 2 or 3 days longer, and often the extra days are because the recipient was unable to sign for the initial delivery.

I absolutely agree with the comment :

It's a real problem with eBay telling buyers one thing and the postage service doing another thing.  and that applies with local post also.

I sent a print to France in early Sep and the buyer opened an item not received  dispute on PayPal 10 days later.  PayPal gave them back their money and I lost $40.

That situation is so unfair !  I had one last December.   I guess I should consider myself lucky though because my buyer (in Russia) opened INR case in eBay after 18 days, and as I was following the Tracking I had been sending him the latest updated information as it became available & continued to do so until he received it.  At the time I think eBay was allowing 22-26 days delivery and it arrived on day 26 !  Phew, I thought, all is OK - Customer was happy in the end, but no way would eBay remove the defect - that is 'how the customer's experience was' - my tough luck, but at least I didn't lose any money, just a bit of sleep & gained a few more grey hairs, lol.

[jfmgray]

I also send mailers as large letters to the USA.  Some get there within the week and others take over 4 weeks.  With the introduction of on-time shipping on this site in 2016, we are in trouble unless eBay get real with their extimated delivery times.